It took 4 days for fermentation to really take off, I only had a couple little bubbles after 72 hours, and it was only the following day that the airlock actually started moving and a small krausen started to develop. There are small hop leaf particles floating at the top from the pellets I used (some must have escaped the bag), the smell isn't overwhelming, just kinda a low level funk.

I'm doing a small batch, so I'm leaving out the hops, and skipping the boil. My question is: since I'm not boiling it, would it make sense to heat up some apple juice to 150, and steep the grains in that? The juice won't be boiled. Or is that still too high of a temperature for apple juice?

I'm doing a small batch, so I'm leaving out the hops, and skipping the boil. My question is: since I'm not boiling it, would it make sense to heat up some apple juice to 150, and steep the grains in that? The juice won't be boiled. Or is that still too high of a temperature for apple juice?

I don't think I'd forgo the hops, they're a pretty integral part of the recipe. Also, if you don't boil, I'd say your risk of infection is a lot higher.

Fine to scale the recipe back to a gallon (why? It's so good!) but I don't think the changes your suggesting are a good idea. But, hey, just IMO, eh?

I have 5 gallons of this bubbling away in the basement currently. Set it up on Saturday (now Tuesday), got a good inch of kraus-... kreu-... kerri-... foam, and sniffing the airlock smells -fan-freaking-tastic-.

I brewed this one up last night. I somehow found myself with only 1lb 9oz of Amber DME! no worries, though - I had saved a good amount of second runnings wort from my Belgian IIPA I brewed over the weekend. Boiled some of that down, and then used it to sparge the grains. Came in at 1.058 OG. I used .5oz of Willamette hops that I had left over from a Porter that I brewed recently, and pitched a 1L starter of Wyeast 1332 NW Ale yeast.

Chilled the wort in an ice bath to about 80F, then let the chilled apple juice do the rest. It was already gluggin' away in the bucket when I checked in on it about 8 hours later.

very much looking forward to enjoying this brew in mid-October. cheers!

I'm the type where I like to drink my beers during the process of making, at bottling time and during the 2 to 3 weeks of bottle conditioning.

Needless to say I've done the same thing with the Graff. After two weeks it's carbinated great.....but I must say I'm underwhelmed by the taste. It's not that its bad...it's just that so far I'm not saying, "Wow...I gotta have another one of those". Should I really expect much more change in taste in the following weeks???

Dude, beers never taste good green. Hell, they often taste rather nasty. This is why many recipes tell you to secondary for extended periods or age in the carboy. This graff is a prime example. It becomes a completely different beverage after a 3 week keg age. Shi'ite, almost every beer I've made tastes better after a 3 week keg age.

__________________
"Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Suthrncomfrt1884

I know one thing... if there's a depression and beer companies go out of business... I'm selling my homebrew.